Why is there just a hat here?

[Twillie]

Seriously, what’s up with that? Sitting plainly on the otherwise empty front porch of the house, a slightly dusty top hat waits patiently on a stool with a little card before it.

Please take one <I:3

After staring at the note’s smiley for the longest time before finally realizing that it’s a cat wearing a witch’s hat, you shake your head and warily peer into the hat’s depths. Nothing but pitch blackness.

You hesitate at first, but then slowly reach a hand into the darkness. What could possibly be inside, anyway?

[Coaster]

Vampire-Wizardess!Coaster wanders up to the house and takes the card, before realizing that "take one" doesn't refer to the card, but whatever is in the hat. So, being an utter schmuck, she reaches her whole arm into the depths of the hat, hoping nothing gruesome happens.

[Mostly Harmless (flufflepuff)]

A woman notices the dark hat on the dark porch of the dark house of the dark street and is painfully conscious of how absolutely GLOWY her giant wig and costume is in contrast. Very un-Halloween-ish.

Upon reading, "please take one", the woman shrugs, seeing not much to take. The card wouldn't apply...so logically...

She picks up the hat and puts it on her head, petting it a little bit before she does.

[Twillie]

As her hand reaches for the very bottom of the hat, Vampire-Wizardess!Coaster's fingers brush across something-- a pile of small papers! Fishing around for a moment, she pulls what feels like the luckiest one out and unfolds it. It reads:

Oh, hello there! Thanks for actually stopping by and picking one up, I was worried people might just pass by without looking. I'd hand out treats myself, but it's hard doing that and fetching them at the same time ^^; But in light of spreading holiday cheer, I wanted to leave something for others to take!

Speaking of which, I hear you like candy ;3 I mean, who doesn't? Especially if you go out of your way to dress up in an extravagant (and hopefully not expensive) costume and run around in the dark to get some! Problem is, I don't know what your favorite candy is. 

If you write a haiku describing your favorite treat and why on the back of this paper and put it back in the hat, the next time you reach in you might find yourself a pleasant surprise 

[Coaster]

"Ooooh, haikus!" Vampire-Wizardess!Coaster exclaims as she fumbles around in hammerspace for a pencil.

"Let's see...

"Sour-sugared gummies
Always have appealed to me,
tart chewy goodness."

She writes it down (and draws some little doodles of sour watermelon slices and sour cherry gummies for good measure), folds the paper into a tiny paper airplane, and puts it back into the hat (which is still on a certain Queen-costumed head, it seems), lingering with her arm in the hat until she manages to grab something less papery.

[Twillie]

Mostly Harmless (flufflepuff)

As the woman places the hat on her head, she suddenly finds herself taking a paper shower. Little leaflets of paper flutter to the floor around her and stick to her glowing wig, and hastily she bends down to retrieve them. Placing them back in the hat, that in turn taking its rightful place on the stool again, the woman notices one last paper that she missed stuck in her hair. She pulls it out, but instead of plopping it back inside the , she opens it to reveal writing.

Happy Halloween! 

Sorry I couldn't bless you with my actual presence, but I had trick-or-treating to do as well, and I'm not sure I can trust one of my cats to stick around and hand out candy.

But anyway, you're probably wondering about said treats! Well, rather than just toss them aimlessly at people, I thought I'd make things a little more fun ;3 (or just more tedious, who knows maybe you're in a rush, there's only so many hours of dark and twice as many houses, chop chop)

But poetry: that's a thing I'm no good at, but maybe you're better! Since talking about my cats got me thinking about animals, I'd like to hear about your favorite animal! :3 If you write four lines in iambic pentameter about this and place the paper back in the hat, you might find a nice treat waiting for you!

[Mostly Harmless (flufflepuff)]

Cassie squealed, completely uncharacteristic of the person to whom her costume was paying homage. "Oh you bet your boots I will!"

It takes her a few minutes, but she writes...

Nails click across the floor, and there you slide,
E'er set to rise and kiss away the tears--
With you around and trotting by my side,
I'd love no other way to spend my years.

And gleefully thrusts it into the hat, proud of her short work.

[June Scarlet]

A girl dressed up as a 1940s Journalist studied the hat curiously before taking out her smartphone and using the camera app to peer inside. Seeing it was just slips of paper, she reached in and grabbed one, reading it.

[Twillie]

Coaster

Unfortunatey, Vampire-Wizardess!Coaster's hand just met more paper-- oh, but wait, there's something attached to it! Drawing back her arm, she holds a pack of the exact same sour gummies that she described, as well as another note attached to it.

Got you some eye candy along with the real candy! (of course though, art is subjective, so you may actually be horrified by it, I may never know).

Oh, and the added drawings were an appreciated plus ;3

Flipping the paper over, she sees a brightly colored drawing.

SPOILER: Click to show

June Scarlet

I hope you're having a Happy Halloween! And if not, never fear! Getting into the Halloween spirit and enjoying the festivities may be a bit hard at first, but there's almost always a cure to this  

One way that personally gets me feeling all Halloween-y is hearing spooky stories. Whether it be about ghosts, ghouls, goblins, or what have you, there's nothing that feels better than a good chill down the spine.

Of course, every story needs a character. Since I'm a lonely soul that should interact with more than just ghost hunting videos on the internet, why not write me a short, scary story starring one of your characters? It only needs to be 200 words, and it can have a beginning, middle, and end or just describe a chilling environment. Whatever it is that you think will have me glancing behind my back like a paranoid conspiracy theorist!

If you do this, I promise I'll give you something just as good in return ;3

[Thorn]

Realising that her NTWF profile was already dressed for the occasion, Thorn decided to go trick-or-treating in a heavy cloak and black mask. This is easier said than done: the cloak is a bit too heavy and the mask keeps sliding over her eyes, so she is already panting a little by the time she reaches the stool and has to adjust her mask for the umpteenth time to read the note in front of it.

"Please take one..." she murmurs. "Okay!"

Thorn reaches into the hat, wondering what she'll find there. Chocolate frogs perhaps? Licorice? She's always been very partial to licorice.

[Gelquie]

Tromping up the steps to the porch is what appears to be a sheet-ghost, with pink fuzzy chains hanging from them, their own fuzzy pillows muffling the sounds of any clanking. The ghost stares at the hat, picking it up and looking it over, staring into its dark depths, sticking its face just at the brim of the hat to see if she can gain anything from it before reaching in, feeling around for anything.

[downrightdude]

Snaw: *kicks door open* TWILLIE! My dearest friend! *runs and hugs Twillie**quickly swipes lamp*

Sparkles: Trick or Treat!

Cuddles: Merry Christmas!

Scary: *eyeroll*

Sparklefrits: *holds out sack*

[Fraze]

A child steps up to the house, wearing around his neck a posterboard displaying a crude drawing of some kind of chart. Seeing several people writing on pieces of paper piques his curiosity.

Well, clearly nothing bad ever came of sticking your hand in a dark hole, so...

He reaches into the hat and rummages around to see what he can grab.

[June Scarlet]

The Journalist read the paper, then settled down in a comfortable spot on the porch and pulled out her sketchbook. Writing always seemed to take a while, so might as well be comfortable. Treat-or-treaters came and went while she tossed around ideas in her head. Eventually, after mostly just staring thoughtfully around the yard, she'd finally written down what she considered to be a decent enough story. Tearing out the page from her sketchbook, she set it inside the hat, waiting to see what would happen next.

He looked at the flowers still abandoned in their vase, the buds dried and the water moldy. They hadn’t been touched since he’d stumbled into his apartment, setting them on the nearest surface before collapsing into a sobbing heap. All his hopes had been dashed when she’d rejected him.

But it didn’t matter now. He was smarter now, stronger. He knew there had never been hope to begin with. Not when she had already devoted her life to another. Not a man, but a cause, an organization. She had been called to defend, and there was room for nothing else in her life.

He looked at the potion. He was ready. He was ready to abandon his old life, tired of being trapped in the body of a meek Blumaroo. He was ready to redefine himself, ready to show the world what he was really capable of. Ready to show her that she was fighting a lost cause. He would tear down the Defenders of Neopia, and show her that she’d been wrong to spurn him.

He drank the potion in one gulp, sinking to the floor as his fur vanished, his teeth sharpened, his body taking the form of a Jetsam.

It didn’t matter who he’d been in the past. He was now Baron Von Evil.

[Huntress]

Captain Huntress of the White Weewoo pirates, dressed as... well, Captain Huntress of the White Weewoo pirates, rather liked Halloween for its blending-in factor. Any other day, looking like a pirate made you vaguely suspicious. Tonight, it just made you part of the crowd.

So, feeling bolder and more adventurous than usual, she ambled up to the increasingly crowded abandoned house to see what the fuss was about. The fuss turned out to be about a hat.

She reflected briefly on the fact that sticking one's hand down strange hats was precisely the sort of thing Bloody Mary usually told her not to do. But tonight Bloody Mary was back on the ship and she was free to make all the potentially bad decisions she could think of.

So she rummaged around in the hat in turn.